The Exclusion of Ubuntu from South Africa's Constitution: Implications for Pan-Africanism and Violent 'Xenophobia'

In 2023, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), later renamed the African Union, turned 60. Premised on the philosophy of Pan-Africanism, the organisation was formed to unite Africans into a single nation in order to combat colonialism and establish a monolithic United States of Africa. The OAU�...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:African studies (Johannesburg) Vol. 84; no. 3; pp. 191 - 207
Main Author: Sesanti, Simphiwe
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Abingdon Routledge 03.07.2025
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Anniversaries
Black people
Colonialism
Constitution
Dehumanization
Democracy
exclusion
Humanization
Pan-Africanism
ubuntu
violence
Xenophobia
South Africa
ISSN:0002-0184, 1469-2872
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In 2023, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), later renamed the African Union, turned 60. Premised on the philosophy of Pan-Africanism, the organisation was formed to unite Africans into a single nation in order to combat colonialism and establish a monolithic United States of Africa. The OAU's 60th anniversary coincided with the 30th anniversary of the adoption of South Africa's 1993 Interim Constitution, which included the philosophical concept 'ubuntu'. In the subsequent 1996 South African Constitution, however, ubuntu was excluded. In this article, I argue that the inclusion of ubuntu in the 1993 Interim Constitution offered Africans in South Africa an opportunity to raise their consciousness about the importance of self-re-humanisation after a period of violent colonial dehumanisation, and that the restoration of ubuntu to South Africa's Constitution could help in reconnecting South Africans to other Africans in the ongoing and elusive struggle for Pan-Africanism. This is especially the case amid South Africans' 'xenophobic' attacks against fellow Africans after South Africa became a democracy in 1994.
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ISSN:0002-0184
1469-2872
DOI:10.1080/00020184.2025.2536650